Sleep on it
by Ragingstillness
Summary: Zades fluff. Pure and simple. Set in the underworld. This ship has destroyed me. Please R&R.
The letter of doom arrived on a day like any other. He and the heroes were at a bit of a standstill, although technically he may have been winning as they didn't save any souls that week. But as his offense was just a defense, it was difficult to tell.

The letter fluttered in from Olympus with Hermes' winged stamp plastered across its official looking length. He had long grown so used to avoided the painfully lit part of his underground domain, he almost missed it. By sheer chance it hit a bit of particularly dark suspended rock and as such pure white was rare in the underworld, he actually saw it glinting and picked it up, shading his over-sensitive eyes.

The minute he saw the wing stamp he stopped still, the burning of the light in the corners of his eyes unimportant. In slow motion he pulled out the letter and read the fancy script of his brother, majestic but impersonal, unlike his own curling handwriting.

The letter was short and curt and terrible. Despite his best attempts, some of those souls the heroes had "saved," must have gotten out and told Olympus about the intruders, unaware that they signed the death warrant of those they sung the praises of.

Olympus was light and good but it was also bureaucratic; if a soul wanted Heaven, they would bypass Olympus for Elysium. Zeus resented with a passion anything that messed up the natural order of godly doings and he was especially strict on Hades ever since he had stopped his older brother's heart. Whether out of cruelty or just boredom, the Underworld's administration was always the closest watched. And Zeus was coming himself for an inspection, his suspicions about the intruders poorly hidden in his seemingly serious intentions.

For a moment Hades wondered if he should even bother trying to keep them from his younger brother's wrath. As long as they got out of his way did it really matter who took them out? Then his mind flew out to a distant farmhouse in a field far from the town main and a woman, sleeping innocently alone. Zeus would kill her too. Not because she was an interferer, but because of Hades. His love would be her death.

Zeus was so very protective of the curse he had leveraged over his older brother, likely knowing what Hades would do if he ever came back to power. And the spark of kindness he could always see hidden deep in pale blue eyes would not want any of the heroes to die either.

He gripped the letter harder and squinted at the time the visit was scheduled for. Goodness, it was so soon! They needed to leave now and no later. Dropping the letter into the River Styx, Hades spun on his expensive heels and disappeared in a rush of blue fire.

When his magic came undone he was standing in Zelena's bedroom in the farmhouse, gazing down at his beautiful witch as she curled inward on a white pillow, blue sheets falling over pale shoulders and fire-bright hair. Normally he would have smiled and woken her slowly but he was more concerned about her safety so he went right up to her bedside and shook her shoulder lightly.

She stirred slowly from whatever thin dream she had been falling into and met his eyes with a half-lidded gaze.

"Zelena, wake up," he whispered. Clarity came to her slowly and her eyes alighted on his.

"~wha?" She mumbled.

"I need to talk to you."

"It's like, mhm, 3 in the morning. What are you doing here?"

She turned over to look at a bedside clock. The exhaustion in her slow movements almost stopped him but he reminded himself why he was here. This was for her.

"You have to leave, now. You have to take all of the heroes with you and leave."

Her gaze was much clearer now and her lips fell slightly open at the sheer alarm in his voice.

"Why, huh? What's going on?"

"My brother is coming, and as much as I am upset about the heroes messing up the rules of the underworld, he is ever more strict. It doesn't matter that they are good, he will kill them simply for changing routine."

She propped herself up on her elbows and locked gazes with him hard. "Why do you want me to take them?" she questioned.

He took a deep breath and sought out that spark of kindness hidden in the backs of her eyes.

"I think you want to take them."

It was out there. He knew about how deeply her heart had been changing by merit of her child and the barely sprouting relationship with her sister. He softened his eyes a little, hoping to communicate his acceptance of this fact. She was cruel on the outside, like him, but painfully soft on the inside, easily damaged.

Before he had lost his heart, he'd been so sweet, but now those emotions only came out around her. He wanted her to feel safe to let her show that side of herself around him. Because she still held him to a divine standard of cruelty and power, fearing he would turn on her if he sensed she was weaker than him. He never would, but only time and maybe some magic of the natural kind could alleviate her fears.

Her still sleepy eyes blinked and glinted at him just for a second then they were hard again. She turned her head and deflected the subject.

"But then why do I have to leave? He won't kill me for messing up the order because I haven't."

He knew the response but still found himself as helplessly slow to give it in the face of her personal majesty.

"He will kill you for being the woman I love."

Color rose in both of their cheeks but neither noticed in the darkness of the room. He took a deep breath, as if to clear the air, and continued.

"You have to leave now, I couldn't bear it if you got hurt."

Her face turned towards the moonlight shining thinly through the window and he actually saw her blush for a split second. The small part of him that still held hope for her love glowed. A long silence fell and neither moved, feeling that to break it would be moving in any possible disastrous direction. She scanned him from the corner of her eyes, noting the tenseness in his posture and how urgent his eyes seemed. He was genuinely afraid and upset, more so than she'd even seen him.

She finally turned back to him and asked, completely out of the blue, "Hades, did you take your shoes off before you came in here?"

His face scrunched in confusion.

"No, I just teleported in."

She waved a lazy hand at him.

"Take your shoes off."

He did and looked at her for more information only to see her getting up. She had pulled the pale blue sheet up over her head and it fell to her shoulders as she reached up and placed her hands on his chest.

It fell completely to the floor as she backed him into the nearest wall.

"W-what are you doing?" He stammered. When his back hit the surface she reached for the buttons of his vest and pulled it off over his shoulders, then moved on to his tie. She set both on a nearby chair and after undoing the top of his dress shirt, pulled him by the hand back to where they had been before.

He was at a bit of a loss but her still sleep-addled brain saw only perfect sense in using her grip on his hand to fling them both onto her bed. She left him half of the space without letting go of his hand then turned her back to him, curling his hand over her waist. She hadn't said a word the whole time and he was at about to ask when she forestalled him.

"Hades, sleep on it. I'll talk to you about it in the morning."

"Bu-"

"Shh."

He shot a very perturbed look at her back but she was almost already asleep again and wouldn't have noticed anyway. She had fully captured his hand in a vice grip so the only way he was going to be able to follow a tiny bit of her instructions was to use the light pressure his fingertips had on her stomach to drag himself forward and curl around her. She was cool to the touch through the thin satin of her shirt and her toes were freezing but he had never felt so pleasantly comfortable.

It was a quiet moment, her soft hair pillowed under his head and his arm moving up and down almost imperceptibly as she breathed. It wasn't bizarre or sexual or desperate.

The realization struck him that it was moments like these that held marriages together.

Fear still rested on his dead heart, yelling to get up and take her away but the echoes of her lack of concern sang the beast a lullaby and it soon fell asleep, taking its silent owner with it.

She woke first, pulling open bleary lids to the midmorning sun and feeling immediately conscious of the warm body beside her and the gentle hand still resting an inch or so above her hip. They had barely moved an inch from where she had pulled him last night, too exhausted to toss and turn. Although he was considerably closer, but that was a plus.

She sat up, letting his hand slide off to rest lightly on her back and gazed down at her sleeping companion. He looked so different, lying there in his dress shirt and slacks, the sadistic smile that crinkled his lips so oddly having disappeared to a soft slackness of utter relaxation. Without thinking she smiled at him, happy they could have a peaceful moment in their restless lives.

A quick glance at the clock told her she had well slept past her usual time and she got up reluctantly, missing his warmth already. She wasted little time in the kitchen, trying to prepare two cups of coffee as quietly as she could. When she got back he was still asleep but the light rays were creeping up on his face.

She set his coffee on her bedside table and climbed back onto the bed, leaning against the headboard and sipping from her own cup. A couple sips in and he stirred slightly, curling into her hip and away from the light like a little child. She giggled internally and swept her hand across his face.

A sudden urge overtook her as she watched him wake up and she suddenly found herself leaning down and pressing her lips to his forehead. His eyes opened at that, a smile already on his lips. She stared down at him.

"Running the underworld is hard work, huh sleepyhead?"

He smirked, but it was softer than she'd seen it, more humor than malice. He sat up and moved closer to her, spotting the two coffees.

His eyes lit up with happiness and he wrapped an arm around her waist loosely, brushed her hair softly to the left, and pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. She flushed all the way down to her feet and handed him his coffee, hoping he'd occupy his lips with some different task.

"Good morning," he whispered, the huskiness of his tone slightly slurred by mid-morning sleepiness. He sat back to where he was before, their shoulders still touching, and sighed deeply.

She tore her eyes from him reluctantly and stared at the sunlight's reaching fingers as they crept up her toes, already at his knees. It was silent yet she could hear her own heartbeat, feel the light pressure of his shoulder, and smell the spiced fragrance that just seemed to follow him over the coffee.

He shifted next to her, sitting more fully up, and she noticed that without her heels he was a couple inches taller. Kissable distance, said the teenage voice in her head.

Her eyes flicked to him again and the small smile that flitted on and off his lips with each sip of coffee, lingering longer as time went on. She had been correct in assuming he enjoyed the drink.

As she had already observed, running the underworld was more than taking free time to mete out punishments to the deserving. While Cruella was apparently the mayor, which she suspected was a self appointed job, Hades ran everything. He maintained the lives of the people in his care and made sure that the environment continued to be in reasonable repair, or as much as a realm of decay could be.

She smiled inwardly. The gift he had given her had taken more than a lot of work for him to create and continue having, waiting for the day it was to be given. And now it had been. She was sitting in it, on a bed in a house that looked like her own, sipping coffee with the Lord of the Underworld. Although he had slowed in the sipping of the coffee and let it rest in his lap, warming his hands as he contented to watch the sun rise, as she was.

Suddenly grateful for the amazing man beside her, Zelena leaned into his shoulder and let her eyes drift in the same direction of his. He glanced over at the motion but just reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes before turning back to the window.

When the sun was hitting the bottom of her chin he shifted and she sat up. He set the empty cup aside and brushed his hands unnecessarily.

"Shall we get ready for the day?"

She nodded.

He stood and waved his hand over himself and the clothes still sitting on a chair in the room. A rush of blue mist covered both and when it cleared nothing seemed to have changed, but the spicy scent was stronger so she assumed he must have cleaned the clothes. He grabbed them off the chair and rebuttoned the vest before following her into the kitchen.

She made to move towards the stove and asked, "would you like some breakfast?"

He shook his head reluctantly at her. "I'm already late for work. But thank you."

She laughed inwardly; they sounded like a couple of normal humans.

He moved towards the door but she held up a finger for him to wait and ran back to her room. When she came back she held his tie out on one finger.

"You forgot something," she teased. He reached for it but she pulled back, flinging it around his neck herself and tying it, keeping only flushed fractions of eye contact.

She pulled the top tight and met his eyes finally, the embarrassment shaking behind shining pale blue irises. Inwardly he smirked at how cute she was but outwardly he reached across the distance and lightly touched his fingers to her chin.

She didn't flinch, so he finally gave up his smile to the outside world before gently turning her head to the side and planting a butterfly kiss on her cheek. That she had accepted was surprising enough, but the real surprise was her continued grip on his tie and the turning of her head to return the gesture.

He pulled back, grinning wildly. Instead of reacting with her typical walls, the edges of her pink lips actually quirked up in a brilliant smile that he'd never seen before. It was the smile of a younger girl, a woman who hadn't gone through the same cycle of pain and desperation she had. If he hadn't remembered his duty to the town he'd created for her, he'd have picked her up and spun her in a circle like an idiot.

As it were he waved and walked off, tucking his hands in the pockets of his slacks and not bothering to use his magic, just letting the memory of the night before and morning coat the pleasant walk.

Out of sheer coincidence he almost bumped into the Evil Queen as she came down the way. Her eyes widened at him and he just raised a single eyebrow at her then continued on his way. He heard her footsteps speed up behind him and chuckled. His lady would have a fun time explaining herself now.

Indeed she did. Regina burst in violently just as Zelena was finishing washing the coffee mugs and setting the toast in the machine. For a moment she couldn't breathe and just made rather hysterical hand waving gestures in the direction of the door that Zelena ignored.

When she could speak the first words that burst out of her mouth were, "Did you sleep with him?"

Zelena sighed. That man was incorrigible.

"Yes and no," she responded casually.

Regina's face flushed with anger. "Yes and no?!" She screeched.

Zelena shrugged and turned her back on her little sister.

"He came in at three in the morning, all in a tizzy because his brother is coming and he doesn't want us to get hurt. He was panicking and I was barely awake so I pulled him into bed and told him I refused to talk about it until the sun was up."

This sent Regina gasping again, seemingly caught between ranting and laughing. Zelena stopped what she was doing and handed her sister a glass of water as sarcastically as she could. The arched eyebrow and exaggerated expression of concern Zelena put on finally threw her sister over the edge and Regina half collapsed on the kitchen counter in stitches.

When she got her breath back the atmosphere was sufficiently more comfortable and Regina leaned back on the counter, sipping occasionally from the glass.

"That is so you," she commented.

Zelena snorted slightly and set the cups in the disk drain. "How would you know? You don't know what's me or not."

She trailed off, then looked up through her hair at Regina's slightly pained expression.

"Sorry. That came out much more snappish than I intended."

Regina waved it away and moved closer to her sister, setting their hands side by side on the countertop.

"You're right though. I don't know what's you or not."

She paused and met her sister's eyes. "But I'd like to."

Zelena had always been taller than her sister but she'd never really been conscious of it until this point. Regina's earnest eyes and the pleasantness of the whole scene just made her seem so much younger, more innocent. It was the first time since her discovery of Regina that Zelena had felt like a big sister.

She moved her hand over Regina's and slowly intertwined their fingers. "I'd like that too." Regina's face got adorably red and Zelena again felt that strange sense of responsibility and maturity. Despite having much less time to redeem herself, it seemed her age really did play a factor in how she handled social relations.

So she smiled at her little sister, that same carefree smile she'd given to her lover this morning, and these, these were women of strength.

 **Author's note:**

 **Did I just use a potentially important plot point as an excuse to write plotless Zades fluff? Yes, yes I did. Still reeling from the 5x20 kiss. Wahoo! Also, for anyone who knows me as the writer of Oz Meet World, don't worry, I am a multishipper and will still be continuing that story despite the show finally giving Zelena a canon love interest. Please R &R. **


End file.
